How To Watch Fencing (Part Five)
To find the saber fencers in the room look for those who most resemble baked potatoes. They wear lamé's like foil fencers, but instead of just a vest, they wear a full long sleeved jacket, with a shiny conductive mask. Everything from the waist up of the saber fencer is target with the exception of the off weapon hand. All that shiny makes saber the most expensive of the weapons to compete in (and most hot). Yet for all of that extra non-breathing clothing, saber is by far the fastest of the three weapons. The first touch is usually scored in the first second of play and time almost never expires before the match ends. Often in fact, they don't even keep time.
The saber fencers creed is strike first, and strike fast. They do not however have to strike hard. Any portion of the blade can score a touch and any contact is all that is necessary to so so. There is no white off target light. It is either on target or not at all. With the speeds involved in saber actions seldom progress farther than the counter-riposte. There is also more theater in saber. With the speeds such as they are, saber fencers tend to use bravado in order to help sway the referee. So in saber, you might see two lights, and two fencers in simultaneous fist pumping action. Thus referees in saber have to be both good and unflappable. Saber fencers can smell weakness in a referee and they will exploit every weakness they can. These truths aside, saber can be the most difficult to watch as a spectator. Referee says fence, two fencers throw themselves bodily at one another and mug for the referee. Two lights, then the referee rewards a touch or not (they have the power to throw it out when they can't determine right-of-way), and the fencers do it all over again.
The rule makers have tried to slow it down as best they can. They have shortened the lockout on the scoring box to help eliminate the double touch, leading to continuations getting the light while the riposte is locked out. They have also changed it back and forth from shorter to longer trying to find that perfect timing. They also eliminated a piece of footwork that helps fencers cover a lot of ground in a hurry. The footwork called the "fléche" (French for "arrow") is performed by essentially throwing yourself at your opponent. The key is crossing your back foot over your front foot and running at the other guy. The rule makers have stated that it is now illegal to cross one foot in front of the other. The upside is it has slowed down saber into sub light speeds. The downside is that now fencers whose feet even come close together are often called "crossing over". While eliminating the crossover helped, fencers are quick adapters, and have found a way to hop on one foot at one another really fast. This innovative piece of footwork is called the "flunge" and means absolutely nothing in any language. Say that in front of a group of saber fencers and they will argue for hours over whether or not the word is what you get when you mate "fléche with lunge", or "flying with lunging". Either way, it is entertaining to watch them argue, try it sometime.
